'From the age of 11, I didn't have any other dream' ... Alaa Al Aswany. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe

What was your favourite book as a child and why?

When I was a child, I studied at a French school, and I loved La Fontaine's Fables about animals. I thought it was fascinating and it had a very big influence on me.

When you were growing up, were there books in your home?

Yes. My father was a writer and a lawyer, and so he had many books. There was also a public library in the building where I lived, and as a kid I used to borrow books as well.

Was there someone who got you interested in writing?

My father again. I was his only child and so I was very close to him. When he was writing, I felt very excited about seeing him writing. He was still my father at this moment of writing, but he was also another person. He gave me books, and he discussed the books with me. He passed away when I was 19 it's been another huge influence on me.

What was the best advice given to you when you were starting out?

By the time I was 19, I had already written some articles and my father told me: "You are talented, but you must work very hard and you must keep writing as your first priority. The day you discover that writing is no longer your first priority then you had better stop writing."

What made you want to write when you were starting out?

I don't think somebody can decide to be a writer. I think people are born writers and they are lucky if they discover this. I think I discovered this very early because from the age of 11, I didn't have any other dream. And I was lucky because I had a father who helped me along.

Do you find writing easy?

No, you see I am a writer and a dentist and I think writing is much more difficult than any other profession because you must be a hard worker and you must be devoted. "Writing" simply means that you are going to enclose yourself in your office for hours, days, and years to improve your writing, to get your style. You will never be able to do this unless you love writing more than anything else in life, and that was exactly the advice of my father.

Does it get easier over time?

No, it does not. It is as difficult as before; the problems just change. When you begin your career, you have a whole bunch of problems to face and then when you solve those, you discover new ones.

What drives you to write now?

You cannot stop writing. I believe the novelist is two persons at the same time. There is one person, who lives with other people and who does the things that other people do. And then, there is the novelist, who hides behind a very sensitive camera, noticing whatever they find exciting or interesting and keeping it for their writing. I am a novelist 24 hours a day. I always use the eyes of a novelist and I cannot imagine life without writing.

What preparation do you do before you start to write?

I write between 6.30am and 10.30am, every day of the week, except Friday. Friday is like Sunday in the west. If I don't wake up early, I feel really guilty, even if I am not working on a specific novel. Then, I work in the afternoons as a dentist for two to three days a week. Before 2002, I had to work like any other dentist, but now I spend more time travelling because I have been translated into 21 languages and so I have to go almost everywhere in the world.

What advice would you give to new writers?

The most important thing is to be sure that you are talented. If you are sure you are, then you must ask yourself if you are willing to give up everything in life for writing. If the answer is yes, then you go and work hard and you will get what you want. But if you realise that you that you care about other things in life, then I think it is better not to waste time writing because you will never make it.

Is there a secret to writing?

Yes, of course. There are secrets in any profession and the more you practice and get experience, the more you will know of its secrets.

But in creative writing there are many mysterious aspects. For example, how the characters can become independent of you. This happens to me all the time. Then, I don't have any more control over the characters. I see on the screen of my imagination, the characters doing what they decide to do, and I follow them. I cannot push them anymore, to do something that I want.

What are you working on now?I am working on a novel set in Cairo in the 1940s. It is going to deal with, the west and the Arab - cultural dialogue.

· Alaa Al Aswany's book, Chicago, is published in hardback by Fourth Estate.